27 September 2008

MISLED AGAINST MISCEGENATION

[Note: My comments here are concerning the YouTube video of a James David Manning, who is black, broadcasting his castigation of Senator Barack Obama's mother (PhD Anthropogy), who Manning says, was "trash" and other extremely derogatory labels. I will not post a link here to the verbicidal video.]

Incredible! Where to begin? I could force myself to watch only a bit less than half. At that point, I began feeling that the "Reverend" has severe mental problems. On this basis, his verbicidal rant probably deserves no analysis.But, two points: the pejorative labeling of a woman as "whore" and "trash" is sexist, because it is directed at the woman only. So, on this point, the "Reverend's" diatribe deserves no airing. (I am incredulous that he actually is a "pastor" of a group of people. Poor people!--if they follow this deranged man.)

Second, he defines the two labels in terms of a white woman partnering with a black man. That archaic thinking came out of the experience of some African-Americans of an earlier era. (Note: For full disclosure, I am a white man, originally from small-town Kentucky who now lives in Mississippi, where I taught at a nearly all-black school, but who has lived in Taiwan and Jamaica, where I was the only white teacher in a large high school and where I was once labeled by a Rastafarian as being from "Babylon," thus I could speak no truth.)

I was aware, when I lived in Malibu, California, around 1980, of Black Nationalist groups who espoused separation of races in the belief that whites were polluting the gene pool and racial identity of blacks. (There are, of course, white nationalist groups who hold diametrically opposite racialist views.) Also, I believe, the Nation of Islam preaches against the miscegenation of "races." (Another note: Much serious thinking posits that there is no valid scientific basis for what we call human "races." [See anthropologist Ashley Montegue's The Most Dangerous Myth.] Of course, there are some opposing views.)

My point here is that the "Reverend," apparently, in principle, preaches against miscegenation and is willing to hurl extremely derogatory names at white women who break the "Reverend's" separatist code.

Every year at my school, I meet mixed-race couples or single parents whose children are mixed race. Seems this year there are more mixed-race children, and, in fact, it is a growing identity in America.

One of the reasons I am inspired by Senator Barack Obama is because of his mixed-race identity. If you read some of his two memoirs, you would understand his unique perspective of both white and black milieux: he has lived in both. America, I believe could profit from his perspective. What we do not need is the hate-filled spewings of the so-called "Reverend." What we do need is the practice--at both personal and political levels--of racial unity.

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About Me

Originally from Central City, Kentucky; graduated University of Kentucky (1970); worked in Hazard, KY, with Kentucky Dept. of Natural Resources as mining inspector (1977-78); went to Jamaica with Peace Corps (1979-82); graduated Ohio University (with two MAs, in 1985); graduated from Cal Poly University-SLO, with MS International Agriculture; taught at Feng Chia University, Taiwan (1988-89); taught private high school, in Malibu, California (1989-92); taught high school in Prentiss, Mississippi (1993-96); graduated U. of Southern Mississippi (with MEd, in1995); taught high school in Ocean Springs, MS (1996-2011); moved to White House, TN (2011); now teach World Geography and A.P. Human Geography at Hopkinsville [KY] High School; completed PhD (5/2013) in Geography Education at Texas State University-San Marcos.